Plane that crashed was 'out of fuel and … coasting'

South Palm Beach couple, pilot died in medical-transport flight

December 1, 2011|By Robert McCoppin, Staff writer

Someone on board the small medical transport plane that crashed in a northwest Chicago suburb on Monday, killing three people, told air traffic controllers moments before, "We are out of fuel and we are coasting," a recording shows.

Killed were a couple who were part-time South Palm Beach residents, and the pilot of the twin-engine aircraft.

A tape of the air traffic control communications Monday night is garbled but reveals that someone aboard the Piper Navajo gave a call sign of "Lifeguard 773," stating, "We're declaring an emergency." When asked to confirm the emergency, the caller responds, "Yes, ma'am."

"You still want to land Palwaukee?" the controller asked, referring to the former Palwaukee Airport, now known as Chicago Executive Airport, which was the plane's destination.

"We are unable," a voice responds. "We are out of fuel and we are coasting."

"Do you have the airport in sight?" the controller asks.

"Negative" comes the response. The caller asks the altitude of the clouds, possibly to know when the ground will come into sight, and is told 1,400 feet.

"We're going to be coasting down. … We're going straight to the field."

Later, the controller asks: "Do you have the airport in sight?" but there is no apparent reply.

The release of the conversation, provided by LiveATC.net, which streams air traffic control communications, followed an investigator's report Tuesday that someone on the plane declared "low fuel," and that no gas was found in the damaged tanks or on the ground at the crash site.

Still, Ed Malinowski, an on-site investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said that it was too early to tell the cause of the crash and that it could take months to complete the investigation.

Killed in the crash, which occurred just before 11 p.m. local time Monday, were John Bialek, 80, and his wife, Ilomae Bialek, 75. The Bialeks, who formerly lived in the Chicago area, were taking the medical transport plane to the Chicago area from Palm Beach International Airport because John Bialek had recently been diagnosed with a blood infection, their son said.

John Bialek died of a heart attack triggered by the crash and not from collision injuries, an autopsy revealed. The Cook County medical examiner's office said John Bialek died of coronary artherosclerosis — the hardening and narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart — as well as the stress due to the plane crash.

The pilot killed in the crash was William Didier, 58, of Cedar Grove, Wis.

A co-pilot and medic survived the crash.

John Bialek's son, John B. Bialek, said his father wanted to be closer to his children and grandchildren.

"We were moving [them] up here from Florida for family support," he said.

Low fuel causes about two crashes per week nationwide among general aviation aircraft, which includes small-craft medical flights like the one that went down on Monday night, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.